A conventional continuous process cooker/blancher, an example of which can be seen in Canadian Patent No. 2,087,418 (Hufford), processes food in a continuous fashion without the need for human intervention or handling of the food particles. FIG. 5 of the drawings shows an example of such a conventional continuous process cooker/blancher. Food particles are transferred from a supply conveyor system to the cooker/blancher apparatus through an upper hopper 14. In a conventional system, the food particles, having passed through the upper hopper 14 will move into an upper rotary valve 15. The upper rotary valve 15 may be comprised of several fins resulting in numerous compartments to be filled by food particles and transferred to a conveyor system 16. After travelling through the pressurized chamber the food particles will fall from the conveyor system 16 into a lower rotary valve 17 and finally out of the cooker/blancher apparatus.
In the above described prior art cooker/blancher, food product is fed in a continuous fashion into the upper rotary valve 15 and the volume of food processed is controlled only by the speed at which the system is operating and the capacity of the compartments within the rotary valves 15, 17. It is only possible to control the volume of food product being processed by altering the speed of the infeed conveyor, or the speed of the rotary valve, or both.
Further, damage may occur to food products of a delicate nature when subjected to the rotation with the upper rotary valve 15 or lower rotary valve 17. In the event that a single compartment may become filled to capacity, any food product near the edge of the fins, may become damaged by pressure or friction forces generated against the circumference of the rotary valves 15, 17.